Friday 18 July 2014

An Image Of 'Success'

Tonight is Puddlecote Inc's annual summer party (we can't hold it at Christmas because it's one of the busiest times of the year for us) where we put our corporate card over the bar and encourage our staff to eat and drink as much or as little as they choose at our expense till the place closes. I'm always a trifle perplexed that (tonight is the eighth year we've done this) only around 50% of our 100 odd employees take us up on the offer of free catering, free bar, disco and - of course for a transport company - free transport, but it's still the best few grand we spend as a business all year. And aren't we brilliantly blessed with the weather this time around!

However, before I wander off to get the welcome jugs of Pimms and ice buckets full of of free wine organised at this year's venue, thanks are in order to fellow jewel robber Mike F who has kindly sent me a graphic illustration of yesterday's blogpost stat.

Bearing in mind that campaigners for plain packaging both here in the UK and in Oz emphasised that the policy was purely to "protect children" from the temptation to smoke, here's how brilliantly that plan worked down under.

"Like a vaccine against smoking"
Stunning, isn't it?

Incidentally, although it's difficult to pin down exactly how many 12 to 17 year olds there are in Australia right now, we know that in 1995 there were 1.524 million of them. So taking population growth into account, that 0.9% increase represents around 150,000 extra teen smokers.

Well played, cobbers!


5 comments:

SadButMadLad said...

The problem with free company dos is that they aren't free from the employee's point of view. They have to spend time and effort going to them, and sometimes, in their pov, what they do at home is more important than free food and drink. Some people like work and live for their job (like me), whilst others just work to get some money so that they can enjoy their home life. Some people mix work and personal lives, whilst others keep it very separate.

Junican said...

True. And I think that there are masses of people who would not like to be seen to be 'taking advantage'.

Junican said...

Tobacco Control is squirming. It is clutching at straws, hoping that politicians do not notice. It might be right. The desperation is palpable.
We can only hope that the Secretary of State for Health is not slumbering, but I would not count on it. It seems that appeasement of the Medical Establishment is considered to be the short term best policy.
Well, right, but I wonder if the Conservative leadership have considered the silent majority of voters?

truckerlyn said...

Well, right, but I wonder if the Conservative leadership have considered the silent majority of voters?



I doubt it very much! What do we matter to these hooray henry's? So long as those who have 'always voted Con/Lab/Lib, continue to do so they have those to fall back on!


Apathy is a lot to blame and those who always vote the same "because it is the 'right' thing to do" need to wake up to reality. The party they have always voted for is very different today to the one originally believed in!

Junican said...

I fear that they will have calculated that opposition to the nanny state will be more or less equally spread across all parties, so that all will be affected equally.